RED GAUNTLET was published in June 1824. The introduction of Prince
Charles Edward, amidst the dulness of hopeless fortune and of advancing
age, contrasting painfully with his romantic portraiture in "Waverley,"
considerably affected the popularity of the novel on its first
appearance. The characters of Peter Peebles, Nanty Ewart, and Wandering
Willie, all so skilfully portrayed, redeemed the work from absolute
failure.
The accompanying engraving represents salmon hunting in the Solway. "The
banks of that great estuary are here bare and exposed, the waters having
receded from a large space of sand through which a stream feeble and
fordable found its way to the ocean. The whole was illuminated by
the beams of the setting sun, who showed his ruddy front over a huge
battlemented wall of crimson and black clouds, resembling some immense
Gothic fortress into which the lord of day was descending. At this
moment the salmon hunters hastened to the shore, and commenced the
ancient sport. They chased the fish at full gallop, and struck them with
barbed spears--as hunters spearing boars, in the old tapestry. The feats
of one horseman, in particular, called forth the clamorous applause of
his companions so repeatedly, that the very banks rang again with their
shouts. He was a tall man, well mounted on a strong black horse, which
he caused to turn and wind like a bird in the air, carried a longer
spear than the others, and wore a sort of fur cap or bonnet, with a
short feather in it, which gave him rather a superior appearance to the
other fishermen. He seemed to hold some sort of authority among them,
and occasionally directed their motions, both by voice and hand; at
which times his gestures were striking, and his voice sounded uncommonly
sonorous and commanding."
In our second illustration Mr Cruikshank presents the frightful
adventure of Hutcheon and Dougal MacCallum in presence of the dead body
of Redgauntlet. "When midnight came, and the house was quiet as the
grave, the silver whistle sounded as sharp and shrill as if Sir Robert
was blowing it, and up got the two old serving-men, and tottered into
the room where the dead man lay. Hutcheon saw enough at the first
glance; for there were torches in the room, which showed him the foul
fiend in his ain shape, sitting on the laird's coffin! Ower he couped,
as if he had been dead. He could not tell how long he lay in a trance at
the door; but when he gathered himself, he cried on his neighbour, and
getting nae answer, raised the house, when Dougal was found lying dead
within twa steps of the bed where his master's coffin was placed. As for
the whistle, it was lost ance and aye, but mony a time it was heard at
the top of the house on the bartizan and among the auld chimneys and
turrets, where the howlets have their nests."
[Illustration: 106]
[Illustration: 107]